


tell it kinder

by fauchevalent



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2019-03-21 22:25:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13750449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fauchevalent/pseuds/fauchevalent
Summary: The soft voice of an Etta James record floods beneath the bedroom door and Vex's eyes settle on the stars outside. It takes her six and a half minutes - the record has played through two songs and started a third - before she decides to follow in her husband's footsteps.aka kate writes the dancing in the kitchen fic everyone has already written





	tell it kinder

**Author's Note:**

> i decided to write some married perc'ahlia bc i never have! fuck! live your best life kids

Two in the morning light floats into the bedroom Vex and Percy share, and Vex reaches, blinking, for her husband beside her. It is early, and it is quiet, and he is gone. Her hand lands in a pool of blankets, duvet cover spiraling under her touch, and she sighs. Percy has not been gone long - the bed is still warm - but Vex has become a heavier sleeper as of late, fists relaxing rested against Percy's stomach and ears no longer trained to pick up every change in frequency the outside world presents. She did not hear him get up.

A woman who once would have flinched into panic at the realization, Vex feels the warmth which has made a home in her chest blossom - there is something wonderful about where she has found herself in this life.

The soft voice of an Etta James record floods beneath the bedroom door and Vex's eyes settle on the stars outside. It takes her six and a half minutes - the record has played through two songs and started a third - before she decides to follow in her husband's footsteps. As Vex pushes open the door, Etta's voice grows clearer, and a second familiar voice becomes apparent in a soft hum atop it. She leans in the doorframe of the kitchen, watching Percy wash dishes at two in the morning - they had neglected to do it after dinner that night - and smiles. After a moment, she allows herself to step into the scene, wrapping her arms around Percy from behind. He jumps a fraction before realizing it's her, and Vex grins against his shoulder.

"Marriage has made you soft, darling."

She feels him hum in reply. Percy starts at another dish, drying it and setting it on a stack of finished dinnerware.

"It's really terribly sweet." She adds, and he leans back into her, running his thumb along her fingers.

"You could've stayed in bed," he says, finally, finishing the last piece of silverware and adding it to his pile before turning to meet her eyes.

"And miss out on this?" Vex asks, inclining her head to the Etta James record as it begins a new song. "Never."

Percy bites his lip, smiling halfway, and extends a hand to her. "Shall we?"

"A dance," she teases, "for me?" But her hand is already intertwined with Percy's, other arm looping uselessly around his neck. Percy's free hand finds her waist, Etta James sings a few lines about that Sunday kind of love, and Vex feels half-drunk with happiness. She leans her head against Percy's chest and her bare feet step gently around Percy as he slips against the tile in his socks. Tired and besocked like this, Percy is not the best dancer he's ever been, but Vex cannot find it in herself to mind so terribly. Percy presses a kiss into her hair and she leans closer to him, cheek against his t-shirt, and sighs. 

They have turned dancing into swaying into stepping, but as the song comes to an end, and Vex finds herself pressed against Percy, she thinks it might be the best way to dance. There's half a beat of silence as the record comes to a full stop, and then Percy rubs along Vex's arms and says, "You must be freezing, dear," and she smirks and places her ice cold foot against his leg, and the moment does not feel broken so much as it feels completed.

They wind themselves back under the blankets, and Vex thinks she has never felt quite so warm in her life.


End file.
